In 1919, a seventeen-year-old student in Vienna joined a street demonstration organized by young communists. Police opened fire on the unarmed crowd, killing twelve people and wounding dozens more. The young student had encouraged his friends to march because he believed that short-term violence was a necessary step toward an inevitable social utopia. Standing in the blood-stained street that afternoon, he experienced a complete collapse of faith. He realized that an ideology promising absolute perfection had pushed aside his moral judgment and led directly to human sacrifice.
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